


Aftermath

by SwoodMaxProductions



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [3]
Category: Super Smash Bros - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Bathing/Washing, Blood and Injury, Bosses, Exhaustion, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Good Ganondorf, Healing Magic, Human Form Master Hand and Crazy Hand, Human!Hands, Hurt/Comfort, Scars, Team as Family, Tending to Wounds, Unconsciousness, Vulnerability, Weakness, Whump, World of Light, semiconsciousness, worried friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:55:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22855849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SwoodMaxProductions/pseuds/SwoodMaxProductions
Summary: (Bad Things Happen Bingo prompt: Fake Kill Scare)Ganondorf’s singlehanded victory over the most powerful servants of Galeem and Dharkon is not without its cost, leaving  him desperately clinging to life.But thankfully, the man who refuses to die now has friends that refuse to let him.
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1500902
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by the Ganondorf World of Light challenge where you have to beat the pre-final-battle boss rush without dying as Ganondorf.

It was over. They had won. The dying embers of two interdimensional gods fell like luminous snow, joining the iridescent blaze of freed spirits returning home or regaining their true forms immediately, reflecting off of the sea like an arcane kaleidoscope. 

The great cliff they stood on was a sort of placeholder, reality reforming anew outside of the sphere around them. It was a magnificent sight.

The same couldn’t be said of the architects of the dimension they all considered home. The two brothers lay in a battered heap, both deeply unconscious in the other’s arms. Sinister had been the first to lose consciousness, the magic required to rebuild the universe coupled with his total abuse by Dharkon having put the poor fluffy-haired chaos scion out almost immediately. Dexter’s… well, single-handed destruction of an entire army hadn’t exactly been kind to him, either. The telltale blue glow of spilled order scion blood still made some of the veteran Smashers uncomfortable— namely those most affected by the Subspace invasion…

But a gnawing sense of dread still pervaded. There was one Smasher still unaccounted for.

Ganondorf.

He’d taken it upon himself to face the full onslaught of Galeem and Dharkon’s most powerful servants alone, keeping them from coming to the aid of their masters as Kirby, Bayonetta, and Shulk faced off against the two gods.

There was a great crack, like thunder, and a massive fireball breached the edge of the sphere around them, crashing into the ground with enough force to create a small earthquake.

They ran toward it, almost knowing, in the pit of their stomachs, what they would find.

Ganondorf was lying in the crater, absolutely drenched in blood. Judging by the mangled state of his armor, a good amount of it was his. They half-expected him to get up, to claw his way out of the crater laughing, to give them a thumbs-up. ANYTHING. But there was nothing.

“No…” whispered Lucario, “H-his aura…”

Lucario stared in horror into the arcane fire surrounding the crater, desperately searching it.

“He’s… he’s dead.”

Not even a handful of hushed whispers could fully throw off the grim, horrified silence that fell.

“Are you… sure….?” asked Young Link. He couldn’t be. Not Ganondorf. Not the man he’d once fought with the combined might of a pantheon. Not when he’d only just learned that he could fight the curse…

“His aura is gone,” said Lucario.

Silence. Horrified silence.

“He saved us all…” Shulk murmured numbly.

“Shut up!” cried Zelda, “All of you, SHUT UP!”

And before anyone could stop her, the princess had activated Nayru’s Love and dashed into the fading flames. It broke their hearts. Many of them had seen other children refusing to believe their loved ones were dead…

But this one had a reason. A very good reason.

“GUYS! HE’S ALIVE! HE’S STILL ALIVE!” 

It was all the motivation Bayonetta needed, darting in and using her own demonic power to scoop Ganondorf up like a ragdoll. And sure enough, Lucario’s jaw dropped as they emerged— an aura so weak that the magic radiating from the crater had eclipsed it entirely coming into view, the Triforce of Power resonating, flickering faintly on Ganondorf’s hand.

~~~

“He… He’s gonna be okay, right?” asked Kirby, tugging on Dr. Mario’s coat.

He’d certainly heard of these kinds of wounds as an interdimensional medic, but he’d never heard of a human surviving them. But this was Ganondorf. The man was a force of nature, chosen for his indomitable will by the Triforce of Power itself.

“Well… I’m not-a sure. He’s-a got a long way to go…”

Shulk had pinpointed the exact point at which healing magic was strongest in the reconstructed world so far, and had right away begun funneling power to it. The other pools in the Healing Springs would be less effective for at least a few weeks once they were reestablished, but it was a small price to pay for ensuring the Gerudo King’s survival.

“It’s-a gonna take awhile.”

Kirby’s little face lit up.

“So he’s gonna be okay?!”

Well, considering how much magic was being channeled, and how many people were there doing the channeling… he was Ganondorf, after all…

“Most-a likely? Yes. EVENTUALLY.”

The look in Kirby’s eyes was the purest, most beautiful thing Dr. Mario had ever seen.

~~~

“You’ve really outdone yourself,” Bayonetta murmured fondly.

Ganondorf was her friend. And everyone knew Bayonetta didn’t leave friends behind. She sat at his side, keeping his head above the surface of the spring as the iridescent water’s concentrated magic seeped into his broken body. They’d discovered an ash-stained, magnificent brooch and shredded scraps of cravat still loosely clutched in his hand— he’d gotten his hard-earned revenge on Dracula after what he and Dharkon had done to him.

“Ultimate Marx, Galleom, Giga Bowser, the Crystalhide Rathalos, DRACULA… Even the Beast itself… Really, when you wake up… you ought to be damn proud of yourself.”

She ran her fingers through his hair, gently washing away the layers of dried blood. 

Bayonetta didn’t really know why she was talking to him. Ganondorf was thoroughly unconscious, and she knew he couldn’t hear her… but it just felt good to get some of it off her chest. He was recovering surprisingly well, but she knew enough about Hyrule and its gods to know that if anything catastrophic were going to happen, it would happen to Ganondorf. 

But thankfully, the recovering world had protective measures for that. She was just… concerned. Being a witch, she knew not only the hardships of standing up to tyrannical gods of light, but also the truth about so-called “black” magic. It turned out he was raised by witches. 

Growing up in an almost exclusively female society herself, Bayonetta had always wondered what it would be like to have a brother.

She supposed, as she stroked the unconscious warlock’s hair, that now she knew.

~~~

“WHERE IS HE!?”

“WHERE IS GANONDORF!?”

“IF YOU DON’T TELL US EXACTLY—“

“—YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE ICICLES SHOVED SO FAR UP YOUR HOO-HA—“

“—SO HELP ME I’LL TORCH YOU SO HARD YOUR RELATIVES WILL FEEL IT—“

“BOTH OF YOU! He’s fine!”

Dexter’s voice halted the argument in its tracks, much to everyone’s relief. He was still very, very weak, and looked slightly winded from raising his voice to anywhere near the booming roar that everyone knew and loved. 

“Please,” he said, “He’s been through a lot. ...He’s through here…”

The order scion led Koume and Kotake deeper and deeper into the focusing crystal-lined caverns. He stopped at a place where some gem-infused vines formed a sort of living gate. As the foliage shifted and the three of them entered the room, they could see the soft pillow nest Isabelle had made atop the inscribed healing altar, and a few concerned Smashers nearby.

And nestled into the soft, warm comfort was the slumbering form of Ganondorf. 

The Twinrova sisters were dead silent. They were not only shocked by their son’s recent wounds, but by his scars. This was their first glimpse into what had happened to him at the Arbiter’s Grounds.

Really, seeing Ganondorf like this was jarring for everyone. To most inhabitants of Smashville he was invincible. Terrifying. And now, with him badly wounded and deeply unconscious, practically naked on an altar, it was like seeing a magnificent pearl crack in two to expose the single grain of sand so painstakingly covered up.

Dexter couldn’t even begin to imagine what this must have been doing to the women who had raised him as their own child…

Though, he had to admit, it was downright adorable watching them fuss over him. They both had to practically climb the altar to reach him, every trace of their argumentative obstinance rapidly replaced with comfort, hair ruffling and forehead kisses and… it was all so CUTE.

Maybe Ganondorf’s prolonged state of unconsciousness was for the best. He’d probably be mortified were he awake— and honestly, this was something he desperately needed.

~~~

“So you’re still out, hm…”

Having regained physical form once again, the elder Ganondorf, survivor of Twilight, approached his younger incarnation.

He looked so… young. So innocent by comparison. He had far less of the grey-green mark of Demise’s poison in his complexion, his nose not repeatedly broken to the point of permanent damage. His healing body bore some very familiar scars, but his chest noticeably lacked the glowing scar of the glorified assassination attempt by the Hylian elite.

It should have been him. He should have been the one to face the lieutenants. It should be him laid out in a nexus of healing magic. The younger Ganondorf should be free, living the hopeful life he himself had been denied. 

“I hope you wake up soon.”

Before he left, Ganondorf put his hand over his unconscious counterpart’s.

~~~

Everything was so heavy. A heavy, hazy blur of too-distant sensations— pain, voices, touches…

Ganondorf slowly managed to open his eyes. As he gradually scraped together enough awareness to begin to really process things, a familiar face came into focus.

He was lying on some sort of bed, or something similar, with Nabooru at his side.

“Ganondorf! Y-you’re awake!”

There was a strange scratching noise below his head.

“Pi! Pi!”

Nabooru reached down to the source of the sounds and came back up with a very exuberant Pichu.

“Pichu wants to say hi!”

“Pichu pi!” squealed the tiny Pokémon, sparking delightedly when Ganondorf weakly turned his head toward him.

“You wanna get the others, Pichu?”

“Pi-chuuuu~!”

“Okay! You’re so cute…!” 

Nabooru put Pichu down, and he scampered out at top speed. Looking back down to Ganondorf, Nabooru smiled, gently putting a hand to her childhood friend’s cheek as he struggled to regain consciousness. He must have been mostly unconscious still, because he leaned into her touch a bit with a hint of a smile, his eyelids drooping. She patted his cheek, and he stirred a bit more.

“He’s awake?!”

Panting in the doorway was Bowser, concern on his face and hope shining in his eyes. 

“Yeah, just about,” said Nabooru. “Bowser’s here,” she explained to her dazed friend.

“Uh… Hey…!” began Bowser, lumbering to Ganondorf’s bedside.

“...Hey, Bowser...,” Ganondorf mumbled, still dredging his senses from the depths of unconsciousness.

“Listen… before anyone else gets here… I just wanna thank you. For everything. You… literally died for my kids. You took out the lieutenants YOURSELF. I… I owe you. We all do. Thank you…”

“Ganondorf’s awake?! Oh, Bowser, what are you doing here so soon?” called Robin.

“...Nothin’...” said Bowser, scratching his head in a way he hoped looked nonchalant and not at all like he was wiping away tears without drawing attention to it.

“Ganondorf!” chirped Kirby, waddling as fast as he could to the dazed wizard and floating up to sit next to his head, “Hi, are you okay? Do you feel okay?”

It was surreal in a very pleasant way, feeling Kirby’s squishy little nub-hands patting his forehead. Zelda was close behind him, approaching Ganondorf with a genuinely relieved smile, one he had a hard time imagining on the face of the girl who almost killed him. This Zelda was… sweet.

He was still very, very tired, his consciousness waning as visitors came and went, his eyes slipping shut of their own accord. He was surprised at his own nonchalance about this.

But it was because he was surrounded by people he could trust. People who saw him as a person, instead of an asset or a scapegoat or a weapon. People he could fall asleep near.

And for the first time in his life, Ganondorf let his healing body rest.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to add some details and worldbuilding like with the mention of a mutated Rathalos and everything... I hope it worked.


End file.
